Don't Tell
by TinyBlossoms
Summary: It was simple, stay hidden and no one would know. After collapsing, and being discovered everyone knows who exactly Sakura is and what she can do, she has suitors coming out of everywhere in Konoha. She was supposed to be safe here, able to walk the streets without fear. Unable to do anything, she knows that she must pick a suitor in order to be safe from the enemy.
1. Remembrance

It was all quiet and to Sakura that was perfectly normal, just a calm and peaceful night. It was nights like these that she was glad she was… _forcefully_ moved to Konoha. Her caretakers, _parents_ , as she was told to call them, were asleep in their room and she was awake sitting on the ledge of her windowsill with her legs freely dangling above the lifeless street below her. It was a little and quaint home, right in the middle of the village. She inhaled deeply and felt the cool and dewed scent fill her lungs. This was nothing like her former village in Suna; everything here was green and lush, ' _just like our eyes'_. Her brother and her were very close, having lost their parents at birth, they had been adopted together but separated once _it_ was sealed into her brother. ' _Gaara… I wonder how you are,'_ Sakura's mind always wondered to her brother. They looked similar, more so than they did to their adopted siblings. Tamari and Kankuro, the famous Sand Nin, they were civil to her, as she was the only one who could really calm down Gaara when they were younger.

 _A scared Sakura clung to her mother's body and whimpered, "momma…" Before Sakura could even look at the face of her mother again she was pulled away roughly. "Hey! Let me go!" Her emerald green eyes could barely make out the scene in front of her. There was a monster causing mass destruction and everywhere around her was up in flames. "Gaara! Where are you?!" she cried helplessly into the arms of the man who was holding her back, thrashing around wildly to try and break free._

 _The monster roared and was starting to retreat, that's when she saw him. "Gaara!" she cried. After that, everything went blank._

 _The next time she woke up she was in a hospital with bandages covering the majority of her body. She started weeping again and pulling at her long pink hair in frustration. "She's awake!" she heard a call out from his post outside her room._

 _Suddenly a man dressed in formal wear came to her. "Hn." He checked her chart and noted that her name was Sakura. No last name, no medical information, nothing else noted other than her vitals and blood type. The man tried to make sense if she was a civilian or a ninja by sensing her chakra flow. He made a mental note that she had no outstanding chakra to even qualify her as a ninja in training. "How old are you?"_

 _Sakura tensed at his icy tone but she reluctantly replied, "Four" She winced in pain when she spoke, but she braved it once more, "Where is my brother?"_

 _"_ _Safe." That was all he said. And with that, he walked out of the room. 'Safe' that word did not put Sakura at ease as she believed he was trying to do such._

Sakura sat up straight in her windowsill and willed the memory away. She was safe here, or at least that was what she told herself. In Suna, she was not. She had trained in secret with her brother and step siblings against their father's wishes. She had monstrous strength and had an extensive knowledge of healing jutsus, but to the rest of the village she was merely a civilian. She worked hard as a civilian nurse in Suna, but after she was… _discovered_ , she liked to call it, she had to run. her family had hidden her within the walls of the Kage's palace in Suna in hopes she would be safe from people who wanted to harm Gaara. Now that her brother had become the Kazekage she knew she would be captured as a hostage sooner or later. In hopes to save her life, Gaara had moved her to Konoha under a new surname, Sakura Haruno.

And here she is, watching the sun rise, reliving her memories. She wanted nothing more than to forget her real parent's death and how the Sabaku family treated her compared to her brother. Especially now, she was nothing. That's not true, she was Sakura Haruno, daughter of Mebuki Haruno. Kizashi had died right after moving to Konoha, he was killed by an enemy ninja while fighting in battle during a mission. Not long after that she was discovered for her bloodline, not that Kizashi carried it, but that it accidentally came out when she was nursing some sick ninja and collapsed. When she had awoken in a hospital bed she could hear the whispers outside her room. She knew that they saw it. _'It'_ she reminded herself. She was a baby-maker. Not just any baby-maker, mind you, but she had a copious amount of chakra flowing threw her veins. If she bled, she would bleed chakra. It would make her invincible-if she were a ninja. It was something that can be passed down to your children. Never get hurt, never die… It was something all the powerful clans in Konoha wanted. But they never knew the price, she wouldn't die of injuries or disease but she would die young, her late 60's at most if she had few babies. Two- that was her limit if she wanted to live passed 70. But ff she were to have a child who became a ninja then they would be unstoppable. But, she was not a ninja herself, not a medical ninja or anything of the sort. She kept her chakra hidden to the absolute lowest it could go to appear to be a civilian. She couldn't be outed as a ninja, she knew her life would be in danger if she did.

The sun rose slowly and by the time the village was beginning to stir she knew she had stayed up too late.


	2. Hime? Hime

**AN: I actually can't believe what happened with the last chapter! I'm so sorry for everyone who couldn't read it properly when it came out, I was trying to edit it when I cope-and-pasted it to the document form on fan fiction but it seems that when I edited it something happened where it ended up in plain text format… I have no idea, so sorry about that! I hope everyone loves this chapter!**

Finding Peace in the Pieces

Naruto was wandering around the village and he noticed that he had come into his best friend's complex. "Huh, why am I here again?" he wondered out loud. Over five years ago he had come to notice Sakura. Always alone, always looking sad, always wondering into the woods behind her home and crying… Naruto wondered why she was so lonely, he knew that her family had just moved into the village at the time and felt a strong connection to her. When he found out that her father had died while on a mission he had approached her and talked to her. He knew that she never told the whole truth about her life but he respected her way of going about things. Sakura came to open up more to him and when she did he would always feel his heart skip a beat. He knew he liked her, to say that he didn't would be a lie, but never acted on such feelings as he knew that she just needed a friend.

Sakura loved him too, he would tell himself, but he knew that her love for him was more as a sister to a brother. Since the day of comforting her after her father's death he promised he would never let a thing happen to her, that he would protect her throughout his life. But now… Now he had figured out why she had been so secretive, about her chakra infused blood. He had heard about it from his other best friend, Sasuke. Chakra infused blood… never die, never hurt, but never truly live to old age. He was furious about it when he had found out, not at her, but at all of the clans who had sent letter after letter to his best friend's place after learning such knowledge. Sakura was his, he constantly told himself, not as a lover but a friend.

She had been the only one who trusted him with her life when she found out about the monster who was trapped inside his body. The villagers… they had learned to trust him, his teammates have learned to trust him, but Sakura had been different. She had been his shoulder to cry on when he needed someone to talk to, his friend when he felt alone, and his savior when he felt so little and powerless… She was something that meant to world to him- she was the one who truly cared. _'Sakura you dummy, you left the window open,'_ he thought as he climbed the tree to sneak up on her when she was tired after long shifts at the hospital that would usually extend until 0200 in the morning.

Sakura was thrashing around in her bed, crying so heavily that her long pink locks clung to her face, sweating and whimpering as if in pain. He moved swiftly and quietly into her room, trying not to awaken her from what he thought was a nightmare. A terrible, terrible, nightmare. She mumbled something that he couldn't make out and walked carefully over to her bed. "Don't… don't… t… take him… s… stop…" was all he could hear. Sakura's tanned body looked so pale and fragile now, she was shaking and crying heavier. Naruto couldn't stand there any longer and let his friend continue on in this nightmare. Naruto reached out a hand to try and shake her shoulder awake when he saw her emerald eyes snap open with a fierce gaze enough to make a dead man quiver. Sakura flipped him and pinned him to the wall with a kunai at his throat all within a matter of a second. Now, it's not to say that this strength and speed had come out of no where but- hell! It did come out of nowhere! Naruto let out a yelp of pain when he hit the wall of her room so hard that it made an indent. Sakura pulled back her kunai to strike when Naruto had cried her name, loudly, one might add. In an instant her eyes and contorted face returned to her regular look. She took note of what position they were in and dropped her kunai quickly and backed away in fear. Naruto watched the scene that had just happened before him with disbelief, almost forgetting that he was against the wall that had a Naruto-head-shape left on it. His bright blue eyes looked at her with concern. How could a simple civilian nurse attack him with such speed and force? "Sakura…" he managed to get out. "What… what the hell was that?"

"Naruto… I can explain," she squeaked out, tears falling from her eyes quickly. _'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Not even Gaara can save me now.'_ The pink-haired nurse took a deep breath and shivered at the reminder of what just happened. She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but they both heard a voice screaming from downstairs.

"Sakura! What's going on?!" Mebuki called out as she ran up the steps. She swung the door open quickly to see an injured Naruto shaking against a wall and Sakura, her Sakura, crying uncontrollably. "Shit," she cursed under her breath. Mebuki quickly formed hand signs and put the whole house under a genjutsu to keep their upcoming conversation a secret.

Naruto looked at the two dumbfounded as if his brain couldn't process anything at all anymore. His body felt like jell-o and he sunk to the floor, not even noticing the trickle of blood coming from his neck. However, Sakura did. She tried to wipe away her tears as quickly as they would fall but it was no use. Sakura stood up, still shaking and made her way over to a shocked Naruto. Said blonde boy snapped back into this world when Sakura kneeled before him, assessing the wound she had inflicted not too long ago. Sakura's tears were slowly coming to a halt and she reached one hand up to his neck making Naruto shiver as he didn't know what was going to happen next. As soon as her fingers touched the flesh of his neck the wound began healing. Naruto stared at her in disbelief, first she attacked him as only a ninja could do, second she healed him, and now… now she was crying because she hurt him.

"S-Sakura…" he breathed.

"Naruto, I…" she braced herself for the upcoming loss of her one and only friend. "Naruto… Things happen that aren't supposed to and sometimes secrets have to be kept in order for this world to remain safe…"

"Sakura, how did you do that? What's going on? Why didn't you tell me? All the time…" his words were rushed and filled with confusion and a hint of anger. But that was to be expected. It's not everyday you encounter a civilian has secret ninja powers. Especially not when it's one of your only friends. His face softened at the pain that was in her eyes. Without another thought he leaned forward and pulled her close, he hugged her tightly and never wanted to let go. He didn't know how the hell this happened but it sure wasn't going to change the fact that he still loved her dearly.

"Hime, tell him now, while we're all still safe here. There will be someone coming with all of the noise you made," Mebuki was tough, as she had to be. This sort of thing would not sit well with the Kazekage and she knew it. "There is no doubt he will be here soon. He knows you signature well." She nodded towards Sakura in respect and left the room as quickly as she had come in shutting the door on her way out.

"Hime?…" Naruto repeated in a questioning tone. "Who is after you?"

Sakura relaxed at his words. There was no anger in his tone or his posture anymore. "Naruto… I have to tell you something. But what I say now will never leave this room, your mouth, or…" her words drifted off trying to sound tough but only made her sound weaker than she truly was.

"Sakura, tell me who it is, I'll protect you. I can keep you safe. I… I love you…" he didn't mean for those last words to slip. As soon as they came out of his mouth his cheeks reddened and he turned his gaze towards the floor, not wanting to hear her rejection and see her face as she said it. No, that would've been much too painful.

"Naruto-kun… I'm not who I say I am," that much was obvious from the scene that had just unfolded before them not more than 30 minutes ago. Still, she pressed on, "My last name isn't Haruno, and actually… my first name isn't even Sakura." The pink hair that usually framed her face still stuck to her neck and face making her feel uncomfortable and considerably ugly. She went to tie it up and continued on once it was in a soft, messy bun. "My name is Aiko Tanaka. I was born in the mountains of water country with my twin brother… We-" she stopped herself and she felt tears begin to trickle down her face again. "Something happened and I had to hide in Suna for fourteen years… My brother became well-known and went from hated by the whole village to someone they all care for. And myself… I just hid, no one knew who I was, and I kind of wanted it to stay that way."

Naruto noticed the pain pouring out of her voice as she spoke, so he did what he always did, wipe away her tears with his thumb and pulled her back into his arms. He felt at such a loss, why would someone do this to her? She was so special… "Saku- Aiko… If you don't want to talk about it, it's okay…" he tried to reassure her. Truthfully, he wanted to know everything about her, he always did. And so she continued to speak, the strength and pain becoming more evident in her voice. He took in all this newfound knowledge and found himself nodding as she spoke to remind her that he was listening.

He learned a quite few things, for instance she was hidden in Suna in the Kazekage Palace until she was nine, she trained in secret from when she was five, and she had been 'saved' by people while her family was dying at the hands of a monster. "Your brother… has he had any contact with you since you moved here?" it pained the young blonde to think that someone who was so close to her had left her in the dust.

Sakura shook her head no and took in a deep breath. "He knows I'm here, but he won't return any of my messages that I keep flying over to him, it's like he doesn't want anything to do with me…" She knew it was a lie the minute it came out of her mouth, but she said it in a fit of anger- she tried to remind herself of that, but it was a bittersweet taste on her tongue.

"Who's your brother? I can kick his ass if you want?" Naruto said as he chuckled lightly trying to ease the tension that soaked the room with bitter words. Sakura laughed about that softly and shook her head no.

"Naruto, I love you, but you wouldn't stand a chance," she giggled out. Naruto felt his cheeks turn hot at the word 'love' but he knew it was just platonic. But still, if that's all she wanted with him then that's everything he would take. Love- it was both a burden and joy. Just not one for his to take.

"Aha, it'll be alright. Just know that I'm here for you all the time. Believe it!" Naruto loosened his grip on her, letting her know that she was free to let go if she wanted to.

Sakura kissed his cheek and stood up from their seated position. "It'll be better off if you didn't know who he was, Just not yet… Not until the time is right anyways." She held out her hand to offer him some help when getting up. He gladly took it.


	3. The Nara Boy

**AN: Sorry about the last chapter kinda being all about Naruto and Sakura but I kind of had to have someone who Sakura could trust fully- and not be so scared around people all the time. Anyways! Wow! Sakura has hidden ninja powers! Let's hope this one is as exciting as the last!**

The Nara Boy

It had been two weeks since the encounter with Naruto and to be quite honest, Sakura hadn't felt so open in her life. She walked through the hallways of the hospital smiling to herself. "Sakura!" Sakura looked up startled only to see it was her friend, Mika looking at her with a devilish smile. "Who's the guy? You haven't been smiling this much since you were outed by your own blood!" Mika winced as she knew that was the wrong way to put things. Her brown hair was tucked neatly behind her ears but she wished she could hide behind it right about now.

The pinkette smiled at her nonetheless and shook her head slightly in disapproval. Sakura walked over to Mika and smiled at her, knowing that she had felt bad about her comment. "It's okay, don't worry about it," Sakura reassured her. "It's not like that either… I just had a very nice experience with a friend, that's all!" Sakura chuckled to herself, ' _maybe today won't be bad after all'._

"Ohhhh, so it _is_ a boy then! Was he good doing … y'know?" Mika wiggled her eyebrows and focused her chocolate eyes on her friend's face, looking for a tell tale.

"Mika! It's not like that! It's just…" Sakura was looking for the right words to say. _'Say that you just feel safe now.'_ Sakura pushed that thought in the back of her mind. "I just feel very happy. That's all there is to it!"

"Well, whatever," Mika sighed, not wanting to hear that answer but she knew not to press on. "Hey! There's this one really irritating guy in room 312. I think you need to give his his medicine. But do it with that special tea you make! He's too crazy for me right now." Mika forced the chart into Sakura's hands and pushed her down the hall into the cafeteria and left so she could get back to her latest gossip magazine.

Sakura sighed and went into the back area of the kitchen once she had put steaming water into a cup. She grabbed one of her home-made tea bags and began to soak it in the water. Everyone in the hospital knew better than to mess with Sakura's tea bags. They were special to her, and they all knew it. It was her secret recipe and she was the only one who could steep it for the perfect amount of time in order to get the desired effect. But the truth? There was nothing special about the tea. It was made of simple green tea, black tea, and jasmine tea that she grew in her backyard. But the dirt it grew in, now _that_ was special. It was dirt bought from within the Konoha walls mixed with dirt from the woods outside the gates of her backyard. It did, however, also help that she fused the dirt with her chakra in order to get the perfect growing dirt. Normally, black, green, and jasmine teas are used as a morning tea so one could wake up. But this was different. She used only this dirt to enhance drowsiness with whatever food she grew from it.

Sakura walked into the room to find a boy with dark and spiky hair laying on the bed with his arms tucked beneath the pillow that supported his head. Sakura sighed and walked towards the bed the boy was laying in. "Shikamaru Nara," she read out loud from his chart. "Can you tell me about the pain you're feeling? You just finished with your surgery after all, so does anything hurt?" She was tired as was he, it was a long noc shift that was about to end. She could get off soon, he just had to fall asleep first. _'Mika… I'm going to kill you if he doesn't sleep.'_

The spiky brunette turned his head slightly to face her and simply said one word, "no."

If Sakura could face palm in the presence of a patient she would. "No pain? Is that what you mean by 'no'? Because if not I'm going to need a little more information than that."

"No means no." He tsk-ed her and turned back to face the window outside. He knew he was getting on her nerves but that's kind of what he wanted. He had no fun in his whole stay here, he might as well get some sort of amusement.

Sakura grit her teeth in annoyance. "You'd better watch your mouth, if I were you…" she tried to warn. Why was he getting to her the way that he did? She'd dealt with difficult patients before, but why was this one any different? He was handsome, she had to admit. Especially with his shirt off, he had such defined abs. _'Damn._ '

"Troublesome," he muttered under his breath. He turned back to face her and noticed that she had already closed the door to the hallway and was walking back towards him. No, she wasn't walking towards him, she was walking towards the window. She looked out the window, scanning the area around out there just to see if anyone with curious eyes would look into the room. _'What the hell does she think she's doing?'_ Shikamaru wondered to himself as he saw her shutting the curtains.

Sakura turned to face him and sighed, "look, I know you're in pain. You don't have to lie, you know."

"What are you talking about? I'm fine."

The young nurse shook her head in disapproval and handed him the long forgotten tea that she set on his bedside table a while ago. "Drink it."

"What's in it?" Obviously he hadn't heard of what the special tea was or what it could do. He accepted the cup and sniffed the contents. _'It's obviously tea, you dumb ass. What's my problem around her? She's cute. But there's something different about her…'_ He snapped out of his rather… interesting thoughts when he heard her speak. "What?"

"Ugh. I was saying that it's just a mix of different teas," she was irritated to say the least. He may have been cute but there was no way he was starting to be worth all this trouble.

His mouth formed an 'o' shape and when he tried to sit up to drink it properly he winced in the pain. He _had_ broken his ribs on his last mission. It was to be expected. But Sakura rushed to help him sit up laying the clipboard that was in her hands quickly on the bed. "You're bleeding internally," she simply stated.

"What the hell are yo-" he was interrupted by a series of coughs which brought up blood from his internal bleeding that she had stated. Sakura handed him a napkin and he wiped off the blood around his mouth and hands. "How did you know?" he asked.

The puzzled look on his face made her eyes soften. "Sometimes you just know these things. It was probably from when you kept agitating your lungs." She took the napkin from his hand and placed it on his bedside table. She took the cup of tea from his hands too. "I guess there's no need for this."

"What are you going to do?" The truth is that Shikamaru never really liked to talk, but for her… for her he made an exception. Not that it had anything to do with her being his nurse, it was just that she interested him on a level he couldn't fathom. He tried to stare her down, make her feel intimidated almost.

Her bright green eyes didn't falter, they stayed just as kind as ever. She helped him lay back down on his bed and once again checked her surroundings. Once she sensed no chakra signatures around she put her finger to her lips, signaling him to stay quiet. Her small hands looked like a child's compared to his. Still, she rested her hand on top of his chest, drawing what seemed to be characters to form some sort of word.

He stared at her quizzically and couldn't really tell what was going on until her felt it. Her chakra was flowing through him and mending his wounds! _'This doesn't make sense! She's just a civilian!'_ Shikamaru felt that he should have started to tense up, started to feel afraid. He seemed to only feel relaxed and started to drift off into what seemed to be a dream like state. What was she doing to him?

"Nara-san?" she called to him. "Hello? Are you okay?"

He was brought back to reality when he felt a presence outside his room. "How did you do that?" he whispered. He was confused, worried, and pissed all at the same time. How did she know how to do this? Was she some sort of spy from another village?

She hunched over him, feeling the presence that made him tense. "Shh. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone… No one can know or else I'll be in trouble…" she didn't try to make herself sound weak right then, but she knew what she had done was a mistake. _'But it was worth it.'_ She reasoned with herself. "I'll be in danger, and so will you."

"Troublesome woman," he huffed. "I'll keep you safe."

 **AN: Whoa! Two chapters in the same day? Whaaaaat? Anyways, I hope you really liked this chapter, hopefully I'll have just as much time to keep writing all this. I have to get a full-time job soon and that'll definitely take up a lot of time. Keep reviewing! I love all of your reviews. I read them all and will reply to each one!**


	4. I Don't Need Help

**AN: Hi guys! I've noticed a few similarities with another story called The Swan. Just so you guys know, I'm not trying to copy her story in any given way. The first few chapters seemed to have been similar but rest assured, this is totally different. Here's the newest chapter! I hope you enjoy it! Also, the more I try and wrap my brain around how Itachi is going to be a part of this story is just frustrating. I had it all planned out and now… I'll think I'll just replace Itachi with Naruto. Let's see how that goes.**

I Don't Need Help

The weeks passed by rather quickly, or at least it seemed that way. Sakura kept taking long shifts at the hospital, usually ending at midnight. Whenever she began to walk back home it was the Nara boy who kept her company, although it seemed sweet and innocent to her, to him… it was more about his growing affections for this pink haired medic. Naruto would always stop by whenever he came back from missions with his two other team mates and would keep her company. Claiming that he was 'saving' her from the deer boy who Naruto claimed to be in love with her.

One night Naruto came running towards the hospital while Sakura was in the middle of her shift. "Sakura!" Naruto called into the hallways. He ran back and forth between different wings of the hospital- sometimes getting kicked out, but he couldn't stop. He _had_ to find her. "Dammit! Where are you?!"

"Oi! Naruto! Keep it down, most of the patients are sleeping, you baka," the voice was dripping with irritation from Mika. She pulled her hair back into a low pony-tail and continued to scold the poor blonde boy, "honestly… I don't know what you're up to but you're sure as hell not going to find it here."

"Mikaaaa," Naruto whined. "I have to find Sakura! It's important!"

"Why are you looking for me?" Sakura tapped Naruto's shoulder to let him know she was right behind him. She was tired as hell- but for her best friend she could make an exception. She smiled as brightly as she could, trying to make sure he didn't have to worry about how much sleep she was getting.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto picked her up and spun her around, excited to finally have found her. Well, she found him, but it didn't matter either way to him. He was just happy he saw her.

"Naruto-kun! Put me down this instant!" she tried to sound tough but it came out more like a squeak.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm just happy I found you!" Naruto was practically screaming, as if she couldn't hear him. He put her down carefully but she had her in a bone-crushing hug.

"What has gotten into you? And be quiet, patients will wake up if you keep screaming like that." Sakura's tone was lighter, friendlier then when he first got there. She cared about her patients deeply but he was much more important to her.

Naruto released her and rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, "sorry Sakura-chan." His smile never left his face and for that Sakura was grateful. "I came to fix your problem!" He held a thumbs up sign and chuckled nervously.

Her emerald eyes stared at his quizzically, "What are you talking about?" She tried to choose her next words carefully not knowing what to expect, "What 'problem' are you talking about?"

Noticing the hesitation and curiosity in her words he turned to Mika, "hey, Sakura is due for a break right?" As soon as Mika nodded Naruto picked Sakura up bridal style and ran outside to the gardens of the hospital. "Heh, sorry Sakura-chan. I just kinda had to talk about it privately…"

The whiskered boy placed his best friend on the ground and motioned for her to take a seat next to him on a bench to their right. _'This bench…_ ' Sakura tried to keep the memory at bay but she decided to say it out loud, hopefully her best friend would understand her attachment to this hospital after this. "When I moved here, I was brought to the hospital first… We had acted like we were attacked on the way here from Suna, I had scars all across my back and stomach from what happened in Suna… That was when Mebuki knocked me unconscious, to keep up the act that only Kizashi was a ninja, and he tried to save the two of us from an attack. He was bloodied up and when I awoke… everyone here was so nice. But because they didn't know about my chakra bloodstream I stayed in the hospital to be observed. But Tsunade-sama was so kind to us… it wasn't until after Kizashi had died that she found out the truth."

Naruto looked forward and knew the story up to a certain point. He knew that Kizashi had died trying to protect Sakura while he was traveling to Suna for her belongings, he knew that Sakura had been discovered when she collapsed again five months ago, but most importantly he knew that she didn't want any of this to happen. "Naruto-kun… You don't know how much I've wanted to die after I've lost everything and everyone…" Her voice was shaky and ehe knew that she was crying.

Naruto turned to face her, his own tears silently rolling down his face, he pulled her into a hug, "I know, Sakura-chan…" He bit his lip. He had never seen her so weak before, not even when she collapsed from exhaustion did he see her this weak. She seemed so frail, like one wrong move and she would break. "But you can't go, everything everyone sacrificed for you would all be a waste…" He knew that those words may have seemed harsh to her in her crumbling state but it was what she had to hear. He couldn't lose her, he was the only family that he had left.

She sniffled and sighed, "I know… but I can't help but feel that my life has been just a complete waste." She tensed up, feeling someone watching over them. She forced her tears to stop and leaned into Naruto's ear and whispered, "The Ginko trees look lovely tonight, don't they?"

It was their safe word, sentence really, but he was on high alert now. He felt it too, the chakra signature was so familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on the name. "Not as lovely as you."

Sakura nodded, knowing that he understood what she was trying to say. She put on as big of a smile as she could, no one else could see her like this, only Naruto. The whiskered boy stood up and offered his hand to help her up as well, she gladly took it. She turned her head towards the top of the hospital building, trying to see if she could see who it was. She scanned the tops of trees around them and turned toward the sky, acting as if she just wanted to look at her surroundings in awe. Nothing. Her emerald eyes turned back to look at Naruto who had placed his orange and black jacket around her shoulders. He mumbled something about her catching a cold and ushered her back inside. She giggled at his actions, _'he really is the sweetest person I've ever met.'_ Sakura tucked a pink lock of hair behind her ear and followed him inside and listened to him ramble on about some new ramen shop that opened up.

 ** _xoxoxo_**

"Haruno-san," it was a new voice to her. Sakura turned around to see whose it belonged to and saw a rather handsome young man with long chocolate locks tied in a low pony-tail at the base of his neck. He wore a rather traditional garment consisting of a white wrapped top and black pants. His ninja sandals were tightly clasped onto his feet and didn't make a sound when he was walking towards her.

"Hi, can I help you?" Sakura tried to sound as sweet as possible. This was the first time she had gotten off early in what felt like years. Actually, it probably has been years. Sakura constantly took extra shifts, trying to work hard for every cent she made. She blinked and rubbed her sleepy eyes, was this really who she saw standing before her? _'Well damn! He's so freaking hot! I could definitely get used to this after every shift.'_ Sakura knew that he was talking, so she kept politely nodding while her thoughts just wouldn't leave her alone. _'Wow, what an amazing face, he's so dreamy, oh my Kami. Wait! He's saying something! Snap out of it Sakura!'_ The medic shook her head, willing the thoughts away.

He stopped talking and looked at her with great concern- not that he would show it or anything. "Haruno-san? Are you alright?" He would be lying if he didn't feel worried about her. It was his clan's idea to meet with her. Her mother had all sent in rejection letters to each invite they sent. The rest of his clan just wouldn't back down, she was something that they could use as an upper hand, something worth while or worth killing for. She still wasn't responding so he asked again, "Haruno-san?"

Sakura looked at him dumbly. He was not only the cutest person she had ever seen in her life but he was talking to her! To _her_! "I'm sorry, who are ou?" _'Shit! Ou?! You mean YOU ya dumb idiot! Quick! Fix it!_ Sakura rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "Aha, I mean you. Not ou, of course. That would be stupid. I'm not stupid. I just can't speak well. I mean properly! I can't speak… properly." Sakura mentally face palmed. This was the best she could do? In front of some godly man? _'God, I just had to ramble huh..'_

The boy nodded, trying not to laugh at this girl in front of him. This was the girl his clan forced to meet? This rambling idiot? Sure, she was pretty, but her blood was so powerful that he had to live with _her_ for the rest of his life? Please, that's just sad. He would have to call the whole thing off if he had to live with her. _'Shit! She asked who you are! She may be an idiot but you are too if you cannot speak!'_ He sighed, not wondering if it was at himself and his thoughts or if it was her.

Sakura looked around her nervously, not only had she embarrassed herself to no extent but now she had a boy lost in his own thoughts! Sakura cleared her throat hoping it would bring him back to reality.

"Neji!" he practically screamed. He was taken back by his own volume and as was the girl. Neri quickly cleared his throat and returned to his normal speaking voice, "Hyuuga, Neji." He stood there trying to calculate his next move in order to not scare away the girl. Why did he shout? What was it about her that made him feel so on edge?

Sakura blinked. _'Breathe you idiot! In 1, out 2, in 1, out 2!'_ She was breathing again, that she knew, but what was wrong with him? Why had he just shouted at her? He was staring at her again and still not saying a word. _'Get out of here! He's obviously a freak!'_ And with that thought Sakura slowly backed away from the whole scene that had just taken place. Cute or not, he made her feel uncomfortable and like he just… Well, there was nothing really to say about him, other than he could've been possessed by some freaky demon. She took back to strolling the village, heading towards the market place.

 _'_ _Grab a hold of yourself you idiot!'_ Neri turned to talk to Sakura again but found that she was no longer there. "Great…" he mumbled. "Now how am I supposed to explain this to Hisashi?" He looked around from his spot and noticed pink to his left, going towards the market. He decided to follow it, he had to get to the bottom of this. Just why the hell did she make him so uncomfortable?


End file.
